This past Wednesday, the Big XII sent a cease-and-desist letter to ESPN claiming that the network wants the conference to destabilize. This comes after Texas and Oklahoma jointly announced they were leaving the conference to join the SEC, which the SEC approved on Thursday. Max Olson from The Athletic shared the letter on his Twitter account.
Here is the cease & desist letter the Big 12 sent to ESPN.
— Max Olson (@max_olson) July 28, 2021
Bob Bowlsby alleges ESPN is actively working with and encouraging other conferences to attempt to poach Big 12 members. pic.twitter.com/fb224elCtd
ESPN currently produces the Big XII Now on ESPN+. They also produce networks for the SEC, ACC, and AAC. Last year, ESPN inked a deal with the SEC for a record ten years at the cost of three billion dollars. They control the majority of college football games with the most prominent conferences and bowl games.
ESPN would respond to the Big XII on Thursday, saying the accusations made against them are entirely without merit. The full letter is below.
From the Big XII’s point of view, they have every right to think this way. They just lost its two biggest teams to the SEC, and ESPN has made major changes internally to free up money to acquire these rights to air these games. So, you can make an argument that ESPN is trying to manipulate teams to join the other conferences. The American Athletic Conference (AAC) are rumored to be targeting the rest of the teams in the Big XII. After all, the AAC signed a twelve-year deal back in 2019 with ESPN.
In my last Opinion Trax, the remaining eight teams could opt not to go to another conference but instead revive the Big 8. West Virginia is all but likely out, and Big 8 could try and pry Nebraska out from the Big 10, and the Big 10 takes West Virginia. I’m sure FOX would love to have West Virginia in the conference since they produce the Big 10 Network.
It’s not just the college football conferences that are at war to recruit other teams to join them. It’s also the sports networks. They want to air the best matchups to pry viewers away from their competition. Right now, ESPN has the edge over FOX and CBS when it comes to college football. As a result, they can put on the biggest games that fans look forward to watching.
A famous line from the movie Jerry Maguire goes, “show me the money.” The networks are paying the money to these conferences, and in return, the college conferences will do anything they can to lure the best teams to their conference. Therefore, the bigger teams that join one conference, the more money they will get in future negotiations.
